Invension of Summer

This idea humans created for the purpose of farms,
In now stuck in my generation.
the 3 months we don't learn,
What a peculiar tradition.

Although, I'm not complaining.
It seems this green, earthly color never fades into a grey evening,
In these hours of summer.
Anything but stillness lingers in the
Sky, trees, and ground.

Infested with the living.
When the living comes out to play,
Is in this time of summer.
the rays of the sun burn my flesh to a pink crisp.
I come aware of my surrounding in this time of summer.
So why do we hold on to summer?

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”